


Friends Don't Hurt Each Other

by ThatShxtAgain



Category: N.E.R.D.S. - Michael Buckley
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 08:11:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18796420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatShxtAgain/pseuds/ThatShxtAgain
Summary: When Heathcliff was still Simon, he hurt the NERDS. Badly.Warning for violence, slight gore, and angst





	Friends Don't Hurt Each Other

Ruby was allergic to plenty of things. Caffeine, bad guys, tall grass, oblivious teachers, socializing, moronic bullies, spicy soup, almost everything in the world. Over the years, her allergies had turned almost physic, with the ability to predict all of her enemies movements and lies before they happen.

But these allergies also made her predict bad things. Disturbing things. Things she wished she didn't know. So when her knee began to grow hives, her eyes swelling up to the point she could barely see, Ruby wished her allergies weren't so accurate.

Three cells away from her, Ruby could hear Matilda yelling and kicking as the goons kept a firm grip on her, dragging the small girl down the hall. The others had peeked from their cells too, wondering what was going on. Hea- _Simon_ had kept them imprisoned for weeks, why would he bother with them now?

"I assume you already know what I'm doing."

Ruby heard Simon coming a mile away, but didn't bother to acknowledge him. The undeniable dread of what was to come distracted her. Simon frowned, reaching through the bars and turning Ruby's head.

"Hey.  _Look at me._ "

Ruby withdrew from his grasp, eyes still glued on Wheezer as she continued to struggle, attempting to escape. Simon followed her eyes, smirking, until Wheezer was out of her line of sight.

The flat screen TVs hung in front of ever cell turned on, revealing Matilda being pushed into an empty, four walled room, the metal door sealing shut behind her. She scrambled to her feet, taking in her new surroundings.

Simon reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a pen. He pressed the top, and a microphone activated. "Hello Wheezer, enjoying your new cell?"

Wheezer growled at the voice. "Simon."

"That's my name! Don't wear it out yet, I'm still planning on revising it, after  _someone_ destroyed the very reason I called myself Simon," Simon glares at Duncan. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering why you've been moved."

"Are you planning on making me fight your new bots?" Wheezer asks, going into a fighting stance. "Because I can take those down no problem."

Simon laughed, his forced maniacal laugh that he'd been practicing since he got into the villain business. "Oh Wheezer, do you think I share brains with Jones? Fighting would only give you joy and misplaced determination. No. Absolutely not."

"You see, coming up with something that could break all of you has been proven difficult," Simon continued, and this point Braceface, Gluestick, and Flinch had all turned their attention to the redheaded boy. "I already disabled your upgrades, but you continue to encourage each other, plotting escape plans behind my back. With things like Julio's candy addiction and Duncan's paste eating, there isn't much to use."

" _But-"_ Simon's tone was worrysome, and the expression on Ruby's face didn't reassure any of the boys. "The disadvantage of an asthmatic health condition is the  _perfect start._ "

"What is he talking about?" Jackson whispered urgently. "What is he talking about?!"

Matilda seemed confused, having not yet understood what Simon meant. But maybe that had something to do with the fact her head was starting to feel funny. Her brows furrowed, one hand moving to the wall for support.

"How are you feeling Wheezer?" Simon winked knowingly at Ruby, and she recoils, disgusted. "Any dizziness? Spots appearing in your eyesight? Shaky knees?"

Matilda would not give Simon the pleasure of saying 'yes.' Instead, she tries to move to the other side of the room, wobbling on her feet, her head growing heavy. She reaches for her inhaler - only to realize she didn't have it. The goons must've taken it during her struggle. "What are you yapping on about Simon," Matilda mumbles through grit teeth.

"Nothing much really, the room's just limited of oxygen," Simon responds dismissively. "It shouldn't be too much of a problem for normal people, y'know, with _normal breathing, and no health problems whatsoever._ "

Simon grins maniacally. "Unfortunately, _you're not one of them_."

The remaining NERDS could only watch in horror as Matilda started panting, which turned into wheezing, causing her to place both her hands on her throat, her eyes wide with panic.

"Oh no, she's hyperventilating," Simon mockingly says in concern. "Puffer-fish! Why don't you calm her down with some comforting words? I'm sure some reassurance from her 'wise' leader will  _certainly_  help!"

"You wouldn't," For the first time since he arrived, Ruby spoke. "You wouldn't go this far."

Simon whirls around, still grinning. "If I were bluffing, your allergies would've told you! No itchy arms or swollen blemishes?"

Ruby had none of those. That didn't stop her from continuing. "I don't need my allergies to know that this is beyond anything you would ever do. You would _never_  go this far because you spent too much time with us, fighting on our side, laughing and talking as friends. I know you wouldn't do this because deep down you're still Heathcliff, and that this goes against everything you believed in, and that you would  _never kill off a friend._ "

For a moment, the two locked eyes, staring down at each other, waiting for one of them to back down. Without looking away, Heathcliff pressed another button on his pen, leaning forward as Matilda's labored breathing grew louder, more desperate. The Korean fell to her knees, gasping for nonexistent air.

"Allergies.." Simon started, his thumb still on the button, Matilda crying out in the background, shrieking at Simon despite him not being in the room.

"Don't..." Duncan ripped his eyes away from the screen, and one of the NERDS' calmest agents began slamming angrily against his bars, demanding Simon stop whatever he was doing. The only thing that stopped Simon from getting any closer to Ruby's face were the cell bars.

" _Lie._ "

Wheezer doubled over to her side, curling up with her eyes squeezed shut, still attempting to take in any air in the room, but Ruby knew there wasn't any left. Not with Simon's hand on that button.  At this point, the frizzy haired girl could already see tears forming in the corner of her eyes, her hands now pulling at her scalp in misery. Through the years she's known her, Wheezer has never once  _cried_ on a mission.

Then she stopped. Stopped moving, stopped screaming, stopped breathing.

Ruby tore her gaze from Simon when her foot turned red.

She was allergic to teammates being tortured.

She was allergic to teammates hurting teammates.

She was allergic to teammates dying.

A wave of silence overcame the cellar, the NERDS' expressions a mix of shock, fear, and concern, still processing in their head what they just witnessed. Then, as if only realizing now, they roared, their attention now back on Simon, letting out their anger on the red headed villain.

"What did you do?" Duncan barks, looking as if he were ready to break the bars off with his bare hands. " _What did you do?!_ "

Flinch covered his ears, eyes forced shut as he slid to the floor, breathing heavily, shaking. "Oh my god, oh my god, Wheezer's  _dead_...WHEEZER'S DEAD!!"

"Calm down buffoons, she's only unconscious," Simon mumbles, removing his thumb from the button. "Killing her now would only relieve her from her suffering." The mastermind leaned into his microphone-pen. "Goons, take Wheezer back to her cell. Leave one of the disabled inhalers inside."

Ruby let out a breath of relief. Despite his new villain stature, Simon still had humane morals. He wouldn't kill one of them, not yet at least.

That marked the start of Simon's new torturous methods. From tricking Flinch into eating poisoned Hershey's, to hijacking Jackson's braces into nearly pulling themselves apart, Simon grew more and more creative for the NERDS' suffering.

Ruby's was just to simply watch. To have to listen to each of their screams being broadcast to her from surveillance cameras, unable to help them, unable to remove them from the pain.

Wheezer was always the one who got the worst of it. Whether it was because she was Simon's first victim or her asthma, Ruby didn't know. That was one thing Ruby's allergies couldn't predict. Ruby could remember days where Matilda wouldn't even fight back, letting the goons take her to her panic room without a struggle, handing them her inhaler. When inside, she sits in the middle of the room, eyes glued to the floor, hugging her legs to her chest, simply waiting for her fate. Ruby  _hated_ it. Wheezer had always been the fiercest of the spies, never backing down from a single fight. To see her in such a reduced state where she actually considered  _giving up..._ that was something she couldn't stand.

Ruby never remembered how they even escaped the wretched place. Maybe a backup team had been sent to rescue them or Brand and Ms. Holiday had personally stormed the place, the blonde wasn't sure. All she and the rest of the NERDS wanted to do was put that chapter of their lives far, far away.

Until Heathcliff came back.

" _What did I do?_ "

Heathcliff didn't miss how each of the NERDS tensed up at his statement. When nobody said anything, he continued. "I've listened to what you've said about me during mission debriefings. 'Bad-guy Heathcliff,' 'unstable,' 'end of the world schemes,' Benjamin already showed me what happened through the past year, I know what happened, but I can tell he was holding back if the rest of you are still keeping your distance from me. So please, just be straight with me -  _what did I do_?"

Heathcliff studied all their faces. Flinch seemed to cower into himself, gripping the seat of his chair. With a free hand, he turned the knob of his harness, slowly calming himself down. Duncan and Jackson both shared a look of discomfort, busying themselves with fiddling with gadgets and turning over a football respectively. Heathcliff worriedly notes that Matilda had tentatively placed a hand on her throat, her eyes flashing with recognition and a hint of fear that he never remembered her ever carrying. Ruby's expression was unreadable, something Heathcliff learned was never a good sign. None of the NERDS met his eyes, all consumed in their own world.

Finally Ruby got up, the others watching as their leader walked over to the other end of the Playground, where Benjamin was hovering nearby.

"Benjamin," Ruby said quietly. "Show the footage of Day 24 of our capture."

Both Benjamin and the rest of the NERDS were taken aback. "Are you sure this is what you wish?" the orb asked.

Ruby nodded, and a light shot out around the NERDS and Heathcliff, showing a three - dimensional projection.

The projection displayed the NERDS lined up in front of a boy with a skull mask, each battered with what Heathcliff assumes are their own assortment of scars and fading bruises from an unknown source. Duncan had several cuts and arms anywhere that showed skin, Jackson's mouth has pieces of his braces sticking out, and both Flinch and Matilda were deathly pale, although Flinch carried more of a sickly expression while Matilda looked as if she hadn't been breathing for a long time. Heathcliff guessed it had something to do with the masked boy. For some strange reason, Ruby was the only one unharmed. She wasn't even lined up with the rest of the NERDS, instead held back by goons beside the boy.

"Now you're probably wondering why I brought all of you out here today," Heathcliff nearly had a heart attack when he heard his own voice coming from the masked boy. "Usually I'd take you separately in pairs per day, and I  _never_  put you all in the same room together. Think of this as experimenting, then we'll go back to the usual schedule, capishe?"

Heathcliff was shocked when all they did was give an assertive nod, letting the goons strap them down to the chairs willingly. Why weren't they fighting back? Why wasn't Ruby helping them?

"Electric chairs? Run out of ideas or something?" Jackson grunted, leaning forward to spit blood out to the side. Heathcliff was horrified to see metallic pieces sparking where he had spat.

The masked boy chuckles darkly, walking in front of Braceface. "these aren't electric chairs Jones. You see, even though you're unable to use your upgrades, you've still got millions of nanobytes swirling through your bloodstream. This-" he pats the back of the chair. "-is designed to hack into those nanobytes. And since you're the first person to question my tactics today, I'll give you a free  _demonstration_."

The boy pressed a button on the side of the chair, and the machinery whirled to life. Or at least the orb hovering over it did. From a distance, the machine simply looked like a massage chair, vibrating and operating like one. But with a closer look at Jackson's composure, it was definitely  _not_ a massage chair. The blonde was convulsing in his seat, sucking in air through grit teeth. The orb above him blinked red, and suddenly white bolts of what appeared to be electricity - Heathcliff knew they weren't - struck down on the chair.

That's when Jackson screamed. A deafening, pained noise that snapped the other NERDS' heads up in alarm, their full attention now on their screaming companion. The masked boy immediately noticed. "Ah, interested in the machinery now?" If he wasn't wearing a mask, Heathcliff could've sworn he was raising an eyebrow. "Don't worry, you're all getting a fair turn!"

The orb above Jackson clicked, and the other orbs spun as well, glowing red as white bolts struck down on their own chairs. Heathcliff almost toppled over when they screamed in unison as loud as Jackson, stepping back from where he stood before.

The boy smiled cruelly behind his mask, turning around to face Ruby who, Heathcliff honestly can't figure out how, had kept a neutral expression for this long. Her left eye twitched, hives appearing on her knees as her ears swelled up. The boy frowned when Ruby barely gave a reaction, pressing another button on Jackson's chair. More bolts struck down from the orbs, and Ruby held back a flinch when her teammates screamed louder, jolting in their seats, their hands gripping the arms of the chair tightly as a way to stay conscious.

The real Ruby painfully closed her eyes, arms crossed over her chest as she forced herself to turn away. Hearing her friends screaming in agony, practically begging to be dead but had the dignity to never say it aloud. The sight still flashed in her head, each of the NERDS stuck in their own torment, wailing, crying, every time closer to death. She despised them all.

The masked boy growled, walking over to Ruby, ripping his mask off.  Even though Heathcliff had already guessed it, seeing it personally still jarred him. Heathcliff himself glared down at Ruby, who didn't so much batter an eye at him. "Y'know, I can make this a lot worse Pufferfish," Simon seethed, tilting his head at the leader of the NERDS. "This is only the second setting. There are eight settings in all. All I have to do is press a button-" without looking back, Simon reached behind him, pressing another button, this time on the right arm of Flinch's chair. The orb above him turned yellow, and suddenly the bolts increased, and a sound that could only be described as a mix of a bat and a banshee erupted from the Latino boy. "-and I can force them to simply take it all in."

The two were locked in another staredown, just like the one during the first day, daring the other to look away first. Simon's hand drifted to another button, ignoring the shrieking boy and the bright white flashes behind him.

"Stop it," Heathcliff whispered, his eyes wide with fright.

His brows furrowed, waiting for Ruby to look away, his hand staying on the current button. Pufferfish sniffled, signifying a runny nose, but otherwise she didn't back down. Flinch's screams only increased, the loudest among the rest of the NERDS. Even without his superstrength, Flinch was on the brink of crushing the chair arms then and there.

"Stop it!" Heathcliff exclaimed, whirling to Ruby and NERDS. "Turn it off!"

The NERDS looked over at their leader, their eyes pleading for her to turn off the projection as well. But both the current Ruby and Simon didn't stop.

Simon only lifted his hand when Flinch turned silent. The orb above him clicked, shutting off, its job done.

Like a domino effect, the other orbs clicked off as well. The NERDS panted heavily, each exhaling in relief that it was over.

Until Duncan looked over at Flinch.

Flinch had gone limp in his chair, his head hung heavily. Duncan could still see his back moving up and down, a sign he was still breathing, but barely.

Jackson and Matilda only noticed when they heard choking noises. They turned over to the once hyperactive boy, who was making weird sounds from his throat. Suddenly his shot forward, and the NERDS watched in alarm as he began vomiting on the floor, a foul smell of mashed potatoes, spoiled meat, and blood filling the air.

What terrified them the most were the nanobytes floating around in the remains, each popping and fizzing like the pieces of Jackson's braces.

"That was the fifth setting," Simon informed coldly as the goons unstrapped the NERDS from their chairs. One goon took one NERD each, throwing them over their shoulder as if they weighed nothing. Which, they technically didn't, Simon only ever fed them once in a while. "You're lucky it wasn't the eighth."

The projection ended, and each memory came rushing back to him. The day he proposed the abuse, the weeks the NERDS were separated for torturing, the looks on all their faces when each came just inches away from dying. The redhead placed a hand on his head, an incredulous look on his face. Heathcliff stumbled back, sitting himself into a chair.

Ruby stepped forward without acknowledgement. "During your days as Simon, you succeeded in capturing and imprisoning all of us in your lair. You did nothing to me. But  _them_ -" Ruby pointed to the other NERDS, who each carried a self - conscious look, attempting to be apart of the conversation. "You beat them mercilessly in several different days, breaking them, tearing their self confidence to pieces day after day, waiting for them to snap. You  _hurt_  them, terribly. It's a miracle they even recovered from what you did to them. God, they almost  _died_  several times to the point they were  _waiting_ for the day they would. Did you see the blood on Flinch and Jackson? Do you remember how you scraped Duncan's skin just to remove every sign of paste on him? Do you remember how you suffocated Matilda because you knew her asthma would make her vulnerable to minimal oxygen? Do you?  _Do you_ _Heathcliff_ _?!_ "

The leader of the NERDS took a deep breath, regaining composure, then continued. "Everything that happened to them, every time you'd punish them for something they didn't do, watching them suffer with a smile,  _that_ is what you did. What you did to them is the exact reason I specifically gave an order for them to keep their distance from you. I may not show it often, but I care deeply for each and every one of them. What they had to go through is  _unforgivable,_ and I don't want anything like that happening ever again."

The NERDS watched as Ruby began walking to the exit of the briefing room, one by one following her lead. "I hope you got your answer," she called before the door closed shut behind them.

Heathcliff looked up only when he only heard four pairs of footsteps leave. Jackson hesitantly approached the redhead, who sat up at the sight of him. "Jackson...I-I don't know what to say..I...I-"

"Hey, it's alright," Jackson said reassuringly, pulling a chair to sit in front of Heathcliff. "I'm not here to do...whatever it was that Ruby did just now."

"Insult and expose me for the monster I am?"

"You're not a monster."

"That footage sure as heck made it look like I was."

"Listen," The former football player placed a hand on Heathcliff's shoulder. "You shouldn't get caught up in what she showed you. Yes, Ruby's furious and we all got effected by it, but that was all in the past. We're still here, being spies, fighting bad guys, saving the world. You should never let yourself be held back by things that happened back then."

Jackson turned to the orb. "Benjamin?"

Heathcliff didn't remember when Jackson had gotten accumulated to the robotic ball's commands, but the orb spun, showing another projection.

This time, the boys found themselves inside the School Bus, the dark skies through the windows suggesting it was midnight. This took place after the NERDS had been rescued, on their way back to the Playground.

"When all of you disappeared suddenly, we struggled on what to tell your families," Brand said standing up, cane in hand. "Duncan and Jackson's families knew about their spy lives, so that was easily taken care of, but as for the rest of you, we had to simply tell them you were kidnapped and we working on finding you. We can drop you home now, maybe talk a little with your parents-"

"Brand?" The director stopped when one of the agents spoke, raising their hand slightly. Flinch bit his lip in hesitation, then asked, "can we...stay over for the night at the Playground? We'd like... some time with ourselves before returning home."

Brand took a long, hard look at the agents assembled in the cockpit, a flash of sympathy and guilt in his eyes. Heathcliff understood why they wanted to sleep over - with weeks with only their own thoughts, they must've wanted to be closer than ever. "Of course you can children," Ms. Holiday fussed in the motherly tone she used whenever she had to calm them in an argument. "We have a few pillows and blankets in the storage room, but you'll have to sleep on the floor, okay?"

"And take a shower," the lunch lady added. "You all reek."

"Then it's settled," Brand nodded. "There should be some old gym clothes you can wear in the storage room as well, and Ms. Holiday and I can provide you all with bathroom supplies."

The NERDS nodded, some mumbling 'okay.' Brand and Holiday exchanged looks of concern when that was the only response they got, the agents falling silent once more. Usually one of them would spite out a joke to lighten the mood, then none of them seemed interested in conversing.

It wasn't long until they had arrived to the Playground, the NERDS filing out without a word. Ms. Holiday gathered the bathroom supplies and gym clothes at lightning speed, ushering them to the showers. Unlike the showers in the middle school, each had a separate stall, which gave them as much privacy as they needed.

After a while, each of them stepped out of the showers, some later then others, piling up in the room Ms. Holiday had pointed out before they entered the showers. The lunch lady was waiting inside, a weight scale in the corner and an assortment of doctor's tools on a table. "Hop onto the scale," he said to each of them when they came in, taking notes of of their weight. The lunch lady performed a few other tests, pointing a flashlight in Jackson's mouth to check his braces, doing a scan of Flinch's stomach, having Matilda practice breathing for a stethoscope, and so on.

"So from the results of the tests, Jackson's braces are... _a hot mess,_ Flinch has literal nothing in his stomach, which hints either vomiting or starvation, maybe both, Duncan your skin is practically  _peeling off_ , so you'll need treatment for that, Matilda, speak for me?"

"Hi," the littlest of the spies croaked, and the lunch lady grimaces. "That basically speaks for itself, I'll probably get you a breathing mask for that, and Ruby-...." the lunch lady falters, squinting at his clipboard. "Ruby, you're completely fine. Besides a few scars and the weight loss shared between the rest of you, you're unharmed. There's not a single hair on your head missing."

The NERDS stayed quiet. They never really questioned why Ruby was the only one who never got hurt, but they assumed it was because Ruby and Heathcliff were close before. Every session Simon would go in front of Ruby's stall, gloating about his latest ideas and plans. If they didn't have cell doors or goons in between them, the other NERDS would've assumed they were working together.

"With this info, would it be appropriate to ask what exactly happened in there?" The lunch lady scratches the back of his head. "I mean, I get that it's a difficult topic to talk about, and I don't expect you to answer right away, but in order to help you, we have to know what was going on."

Again, not a word from the NERDS. The lunch lady sighs, sliding his clipboard on the table. "Alright, I'll be calling you one at a time for treatments and prescriptions. Jackson, you first."

With that, the other NERDS headed to the room on the left, finding the pillows and blankets Ms. Holiday mentioned in a pile. The spies got to work with arranging them into somewhat of a pillow fort, only realizing halfway that they didn't have enough to make it big enough for all of them, so instead left a large gap on the side for them to lay down in. They probably made it too narrow that they'd have to squeeze together to fit, but they couldn't care less. The lunch lady would occasionally pop in to call one of them for treatment, the other returning from it at the same the time.

They finished the fort when Matilda came back carrying a bottle bigger than her head and her replacement inhalers.

"What's with the bottle?" Flinch asked, munching on a granola bar. All the lunch lady said to him was to fill his stomach with the nearby vending machine snacks, but not to take anything sweet just yet.

"The lunch lady said to drink 'plenty' of water, saying it'll help bring my voice back," Matilda wheezed, half her words sounding as if she had inhaled helium. "Since I'm supposed to drink ten eight - ounce glasses of water everyday, he gave me half a pitcher to cover the days I didn't."

"Maybe you should rest your voice for now," Duncan suggested. "You're already having a harder time talking then usual."

Matilda nodded as Ruby adjusted the last pillow for the row of pillows they'd be sleeping on. Five pillows, five of them. "Flinch, finish that granola bar and go brush your teeth. Duncan, go follow him to steer him away from anything with sugar." Both boys nodded, the Latino shoving the rest of the granola bar into his mouth before following Duncan out the door.

Matilda took a sip from her water bottle, glancing up before pointing at the small glowing orbs floating around the room in confusion. Jackson followed her line of sight. "Oh those?" He asked. "Duncan activated them. Said it would give enough light in case one of us needed to go to the bathroom or something."

"We just got back and Duncan's already playing around with the gadgets?" Ruby joked. "That guy really can't separate himself from technology." This earned a chuckle from the other two, the female recapping her bottle before setting it aside. Heathcliff couldn't help but smile a little at the sight. They had just returned from being beaten to the core, and they already seemed to be slowly turning back to their normal selves. Or at least, as normal as a NERD could be.

It wasn't long until Flinch and Duncan returned, and the NERDS shut off the lights, getting ready to turn in for the night. Flinch and Matilda lay on the left, Duncan beside Matilda, making him in the middle of the five, with Jackson and Ruby on his right.

The NERDS stayed put for a while, simply laying there but not exactly sleeping just yet. Not even a few minutes had passed when Jackson blurted, "as tired as I was on the School Bus, I can't fall asleep."

"Me neither."

"Not a wink."

"Surprisingly, no."

"Matilda?"

There was the sound of shuffling beside Duncan, so he assumed she shook her head. "Well that's just great,"  Ruby grumbled. "How are we gonna fall asleep?"

"Hey Duncan, why don't you tell us about those floaty thingies you got set up around the room?" Jackson asked. The chubby boy perked up. "Well for starters, these 'floaty thingies' are called the strontium aluminate-" a loud exaggerated snore cut Duncan off, causing a few laughs from the others. Duncan scowled at Jackson, who in return gave a shrug, smiling.

And just like that, the NERDS stayed up for the rest of the night, finding a deck of cards on one of the shelves and going through multiple rounds of card games to pass the time. Normal games turned into bets, which escalated to screaming matches when they lost. By the time it was morning and Brand, Holiday, and the lunch lady had come in to check on them, they were all sprawled out on in different positions, asleep. The cards were scattered across the room, their pillow fort disassembled, and Jackson's face covered with several sharpie drawings.

"Should we wake them?" The lunch lady asked, walking over to move Flinch to the side. In his original position, one of his legs kept kicking Wheezer, who in return elbowed him in her sleep.

Brand shook his head, a small smile coming to his face. "Let them rest. They're recovering already."

The projection ended, and Jackson turned back to Heathcliff. "See? Even after just coming back, we were okay. Sure, we decided to miss out a few days of school to take a short break, but afterwards were raring to go on another mission."

"Heathcliff I'm going to be completely honest - we all hated you during those weeks were captured. But we don't hate the you right now. You can start over, just like I did. And yes, gaining their trust will be hard - heck Ruby will be dead set on making your life a living hell - but they'll come around when they're ready. They'll see that you're not the Heathcliff you were before, and sooner or later, you'll be back on the team."

"Hey, Jackson," Heathcliff spoke after a moment. The blonde quirked a brow. "Why are you helping me? After what I did, after that order Ruby gave you and the others, why do you still help me?"

The blonde chuckles, getting up from his chair. "Do I really need to answer that? It's simple." He extended a hand to the boy with glasses. "You're my  _friend_ , Heathcliff." The boy gradually took his hand, and Jackson pulls him up.

"And  _ **friends don't hurt each other.**_ "

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So I heard from NerdyNobody that the NERDS fandom had come back to life, and I wanted to make my own contribution! Sorry I took so long, but now that this is done I'll be make a one shot book of all the NERDS. It'll contain moments that happen in their school, during missions, alternate universes, or just them hanging out. Thank you for reading this half - assed fanfic, which probably has like a million errors, and have a good day!


End file.
